What Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Costs in Virginia, Maryland and DC

The short answer

On a five-to-twenty-five mile trip, which covers most journeys inside Northern Virginia:

Wheelchair or ambulatory, one way — roughly $105 to $165
Wheelchair or ambulatory, round trip — roughly $110 to $230
Stretcher, one way — roughly $280 to $360
Stretcher, round trip — roughly $460 to $620

Bariatric service, long-distance trips and add-ons move those figures. The estimator below does the arithmetic.

The full rate card

Every trip is a pick-up fee plus mileage. The pick-up fee covers the vehicle, the crew and the assistance at both ends; the mileage covers the distance.

Ambulatory and wheelchair
Round trip — $55.00 per leg, 5 miles included per leg, $3.00 each additional mile
One way or discharge — $90.00, no included miles, $3.00 per mile
Bariatric round trip (300 lb+) — $100.00 per leg, 5 miles included per leg, $3.00 each additional mile
Bariatric one way (300 lb+) — $130.00, no included miles, $3.00 per mile
Long distance, 50 miles and over — $175.00, $4.50 per mile

Stretcher
Round trip — $230.00 per leg, 5 miles included per leg, $4.00 each additional mile
One way or discharge — $260.00, no included miles, $4.00 per mile
Bariatric round trip (300 lb+) — $325.00 per leg, 5 miles included per leg, $4.00 each additional mile
Bariatric one way (300 lb+) — $365.00, no included miles, $4.00 per mile
Long distance, 50 miles and over — $300.00, $6.00 per mile

Two things worth understanding about how that reads. Round trips bill per leg — $55 twice, with five included miles on each. A ten-mile round trip is $140; the same distance one-way is $120. And the long-distance fee replaces the standard pick-up fee rather than adding to it, which is why a seventy-mile wheelchair trip is $175 plus mileage rather than $90 plus mileage.

Add-ons

These are the things that change a quote, and we’d rather name them than surprise you with them.

Stair chair team required — $75. When a rider can’t manage steps and the transfer needs two crew and a stair chair. Tell us about steps when you book and this appears on the quote rather than on the invoice.
After hours — $30 wheelchair, $50 stretcher. Before 7am or after 6pm.
Wait time, prescheduled — $75 per hour wheelchair, $100 per hour stretcher. For short appointments where the vehicle staying is cheaper and faster than a return leg.
Oxygen tank rental — $35 per 2L tank.
Additional stop — $20 wheelchair, $30 stretcher. A pharmacy run on the way home is the usual case.
Cancellation or no-show — $50.
Credit card processing — 3%.

On cancellations. The window is the same for everyone: two hours. Cancel or change more than two hours before the scheduled pickup and there’s no charge, whether you’re a family paying privately or a facility on account. That sits deliberately inside our three-hour booking commitment — a discharge planner booking at three hours’ notice is never inside their own cancellation window.

What Medicaid covers, and what it doesn’t

If the rider is a Medicaid member and the trip is to a covered medical service, the ride should cost them nothing — and it should not be booked through us.

In Virginia there is no single statewide broker. Fee-for-service members go through one transportation vendor; managed care members go through whichever vendor their health plan uses. The number to call is on the back of the member’s ID card. Once the broker authorizes the trip it may well be assigned to us, but the authorization has to start with them. A ride booked directly with us is a private-pay ride, whoever the rider is.

H&M Transport is not a Medicaid provider in Maryland. In Montgomery County, Medicaid rides are arranged through the county Department of Transportation’s Medical Assistance Transportation Program, and Prince George’s County residents should start with the number on the member’s ID card. In Washington DC, the only Medicaid plan we serve is UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of the District of Columbia, through SafeRide Health. In Maryland and DC alike, if your health plan’s ride benefit is administered by SafeRide Health, you can request H&M Transport by name.

Medicare generally does not cover non-emergency medical transportation. Original Medicare covers ambulance transport when it’s medically necessary and an ambulance is genuinely required — not a wheelchair van to a clinic appointment. Some Medicare Advantage plans include a limited transportation benefit; if you’re on one, check the plan documents, because the allowance is usually a fixed number of trips per year rather than open-ended.

Private insurance rarely covers it. Long-term care insurance sometimes does. Veterans may have transport benefits through the VA. If you’re not sure, call us and describe the situation — we can usually tell you within a minute which conversation you should be having.

What actually moves a quote

Level of service is the largest single factor, and it isn’t about comfort. A stretcher trip costs more than four times a wheelchair trip because it takes a different vehicle and two crew rather than one. Getting the level right at booking matters more than anything else — the wrong vehicle at the door means a delay, and a delay on a medical appointment is rarely just an inconvenience.

One way versus round trip. Under about eight miles, a round trip is cheaper than two one-ways because of the included mileage on each leg. Over that, the gap closes.

Distance, but not linearly. The long-distance rate kicks in at fifty miles and changes the whole structure of the quote.

Stairs, oxygen and extra stops. Each is a named add-on above. None of them is a surprise if you mention it when you book.

What doesn’t change the price: crossing a state line. We hold WMATC authority 3449, which covers the District, the Northern Virginia jurisdictions and Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in Maryland. A Virginia-to-DC trip is quoted on the same card as a Virginia-to-Virginia one.

Call dispatch at (703) 304-7889 and we’ll quote the trip before you commit to it.

What we can’t take

H&M Transport runs non-emergency medical transportation. We carry people to scheduled medical care and back home again, and the ride itself is transport rather than treatment.

That means there are trips we can’t take. We are not an ambulance service. We don’t provide medical care or monitoring on board, we don’t transport anyone to an emergency room, and we don’t move patients from one hospital to another for a higher level of care. Those are ambulance trips, and they need a crew and a vehicle equipped for them.

If this is a medical emergency, call 911.

If you’re not sure which you need, call us and describe the situation. We would rather tell you to dial 911 than send the wrong vehicle.

Book a ride

Ambulatory, wheelchair, stretcher and bariatric transport across Northern Virginia, Washington DC and the Maryland suburbs. Seven days a week, around the clock.

Call (703) 304-7889, or start on our reservations page and we’ll call you back to confirm the details and the price.